Bah - figures the mighty Sheik Voodoo would sneak in and abscond with the 1000th post in the OOC.
When I break out Mad Monkeys at the proper time, then you shall see! Then...you...shall...see!
Plus, I know of no whining players in this AP.
Okay thanks everyone, I shall look into some wands, scrolls and potions then. I might see if I can buy a +2 Studded Leather Armour too. I will need enough to buy some books though.
Oh and I am hoping to make a copy of my book, which I rolled a Scribe check already to do. So how much can I sell a copy for?
I am working on reworking the treasure breakdown to take Voodoo's "hint" in stride. I should have it up soon.
Okay.
After some excel finagling to make sure I was doing the calculations right if we take Voodoo at his word (being the tricksy GM that he be) and keep the three gems, the mace, and the breastplate our new breakdown on items remains unchanged (save for Kzrira) but our new gold totals looks like this:
Auri gets 1325 gp 90 sp
Kzrira gets 4400 gp 90 sp (This assumes she keeps the agile plate)
Amir owes 1179gp 10sp (Which I don't have)
Karethas gets 5125gp 90sp
Faelar gets 3438gp 40sp
However if Voodoo agrees that Amir can take all of the unclaimed loot with him to Katapesh (purely those things which people are not carrying on their person) then I would get ten percent which would change our cash to each to:
Auri gets 1556 gp 4 sp
Kzrira gets 5235 gp 54 sp (This assumes she keeps the agile plate)
Amir owes 948gp 96sp (Which I have...)
Karethas gets 5356gp 4sp
Faelar gets 3438gp 40sp
Can't say I'm super jazzed about owing money but its the math and I have it so...yeah. There we go.
EDIT: MATH WAS WRONG ON INITIAL POST, REDONE
Yeah losing those things really hurt the average....let me know what you folks think.
Ack, I'm going to have to really cut back on my list!
I don't think you sold off the mithral shirt. it just disappeared in Amir's conversion of the original loot list. you should add that back.
With that in mind each person nets an addtional 121gp if Amir sells the shirt in Katapesh.
Rather than selling the Mithral Shirt, it might be worth spending 1000 gp to have it enchanted. I believe that Faelar can use it and a Mithral Shirt is much better than the Studded Leather +1 he has now.
Right I am back from holiday now, so I can put my full effort into this.
I take it this is the point in the campaign where we can purchase our equipment?
I shall have a look over the wands, etc. As well as looking at improving a certain item I already own (I am thinking of asking Karethas to upgrade my Headband of +2 Charisma, to a Headband of Mental Prowess +2 Charisma and Intelligence. I can then place the skill on it into Use Magic Device and then have a good score on that, meaning I can use wands easier. This will cost me 3,000 GP). Can I have everyone's thoughts on this please?
If I have enough money after that I can put it towards the chain shirt. However if Amir is in desperate need of money, I can lend him the difference he needs.
Just for clarification, who has the +2 Breastplate of Light Fort at this point?
I will figure out what I need in the next day or so. I am making some decisions on the future of my character at this point. Considering taking more Ranger/Fighter levels and getting some mounted combat type feats (Mounted Archery), and getting some type of a animal companion that can be ridden.
Although I still like the idea, I may skip the Arcane Archer and stay Ranger/Fighter throughout.
I thought you had the armour Kzrira, as you were the only person who benefited from it as everyone else is either wearing no armour or Light Armour.
Does anyone have any scrolls that they think will be useful for the group? Obviously healing scrolls are useful. But any others, bearing in mind that Karethas is able to cast quite a few offensive spells.
We have a +1 Breastplate(agile), and a +2 Breastplate(lt. fort). I have been wearing the +1 breastplate(agile). I will take the +2 breastplate if nobody wants it. Eventually, I will want to switch it for a mithril breastplate. Right now I get the full dex bonus because of Armor Training, but if/when I get a belt of dex, I will not gain the dex bonuses to AC with a normal breastplate.
Also, there are some feats that do not work with medium armor and the mithriil breastplate counts as light.
Unfortunately for me that won't help, as I don't have Medium Armour Proficiency, so I won't get the benefit of wearing it, as I still need to be proficient in it first.
Also any Wands that would help?
So ... Why are you thinking of not going into Arcane Archer now?
So ... Why are you thinking of not going into Arcane Archer now?
off screen discussion. Tempest will have certain abilities that should somewhat alleviate the need for Kzrira to take wiz and aa levels so she can focus on fightin'.
Ah right, okay. Voodoo, any idea on my Spoilered question above yet?
Yah Auri needs to go back to the workshop fir a bit of revision and re-equipping...
Yeh - I would love to go the Arcane Archer route, but at this point in this campaign, staying with the Ranger/Fighter line is probably more in line with the character. I am an archer and always will be, but I am also the tank of the party until Karethas and Auri are able to summon creatures buff enough to soak up all the damage. Armor is obviously key and being a straight fighter I get Armor Training which will allow me to wear heavier armor.
The question is how many Ranger levels and Fighter levels I take. Fighter gives me the pure combat (Feats, Armor Training, Weapon Training). Ranger gives me more fun stuff (Animal Companion, spells, evasion, tracking, favored enemy, favored terrain, etc). Right now I am trying to figure out how to go about it. Lots of options and possibilities.
Ok, looking at the equipment.
How about I take the Breastplate +2, Light Fort and the Greataxe +1.
While the greataxe is not something I am great with (Str 12), if Karethas memorizes or has a scroll of Enlarge Person. Any time that I get stuck in a hand to hand combat situation, I will do decent damage. If I can buy a scroll of Lead Blades, I will be doing 4d6. Not my choice weapon, but never hurts to have a backup to the bow.
I end up having a bunch of valuable equipment and do not know how much this will leave for others. Also, this will make me so that I really have no money, I am willing to do this and hope that I can get an Efficient Quiver which is really the only thing I need to store arrows and my bow.
Whoever is calculating the loot, let me know if this is viable.
Ah right, okay. Voodoo, any idea on my Spoilered question above yet?
100 scarabs
Okay, I shall take that amount off of my total funds. Thank-you.
Auri's summon cretaures aren't going to be able to really soak much as they are 1-2HD creatures at most, and given the slow progression of the Oracle spell list I wont have summon III until L6.
I'm putting a bit of thought into how he dishes out damage, as the Cleric/Oracle spell list actually seems to boil down to close range fire attacks, or buffs to melee. Whilst the close range flame attacks cause him to have to stick close to fights, the creatures seemed pretty fireproof for that last AP, and to swap to combat buffs just wont work when all you have is a tiny bite.
Anyhow, rebuilding Auri, going to throw out all the Diplomacy stuff etc as he might have to focus a little differently and play differently. Unfortunately he is high CHA and put points and traits into Diplomacy etc, but was really unable to participate in the RP aspect of the last mod, so was a bit of a waste of a build, and the combats were just downright soul-crushing and left his participation down to flapping around to provide an alternative target for mobs to try hit while others did all the actual work.
If he can't be RP, isn't a skill monkey, and he isn't combat, he's dead weight.
Hence rebuild time.
I love Auri, but can understand the frustration. With the size, you are rather restricted in combat. You could take some rogue levels to give you sneak attack damage, but that causes your oracle to lag more. On the flip side, you are only one level behind in the spell progression versus a cleric. Since you are rather limited on equipment, unless DM Voodoo allows specially modified armor or weapons, you might want to look into a charisma headband and a dex belt.
Not sure what else unless you completely change the character. As I have said, I love the concept and think that if you were allowed to take the Form of the Dragon spells at higher levels, it would be awesome.
Two other options might be Elemental Spell Metamagic feat or taking a single level of Sorcerer with the Elemental Bloodline. If you took Water, Earth or Air, this would allow you to change any spell you cast to that type of damage which would overcome the fire DR and resistance we are likely to meet in this AP. I do not know whether DM Voodoo would allow you to take this Elemental Bloodline Arcana as a feat, but it would definitely make Auri more versatile.
Hey guys,
After looking at the need to rebuild, and a few rebalancing issues, I couldn't see a workable way for Auri to become anything other than even more useless (I felt) so really thats the end of the road.
I'd like to say thanks to Sheik Voodoo for allowing the slightly quirky concept in the first place, and for patiently rolling with it through the first book. I had a lot of fun with the character, even in light of the significant shortcomings. It was a challenge in that he has some big drawbacks, but I still kicked him along as hard as I could to get the best out of what it was.
I wish you guys the best on your future endeavours, but Auri will now live on as a chapter in one of Faelars history books.
Thanks for the fun, it's been cool.
Auri.
Sorry to see you go, Auri. I apologize for not being able to engage you better. Good luck.
Auri/Shift - Sorry to see you go, I really liked the character. Can we talk you into building a new character to join with us moving forward in the campaign?
Not really.
In fairness, I just can't really see the fit - after over a year of playing to sort of dump one character cold to replace with another concept out of the blue just doesn't connect to well for me. It wasn't so much an engagement issue, as he was well engaged to the storyline and had a reason to fly along with the party, I just found there were a few holes with his effectiveness that were hard to shore up, and was about to get a fair bit harder. I wasn't keen on a character that was 'broken' but in the wrong way.
Sheik V and I have had a pretty good exchange about where we are both coming from, but simply put we can't reconcile differences on Auri, and I am not certain after the investment of a year into a campaign and building that character into the social fabric that I could be easily sold on 'starting over'.
So yeah, I think it's best left where it is.
It's been enjoyable, but for me I got the idea of Auri after seeing the LoF cover and that was it, I held out looking for both a LoF campaign, and a GM open enough to explore something 'different'. This campaign was the 3rd attempt, with Alex Kilcoyne (sp?) getting the first GM who said OK to change his mind after having a complain, and then the second GM folded the game (fair call, most of the party were flaky and stopped posting - such is the oft found fate of PbP's) so that kinda left this campaign as the last shot to give it a crack, and to SV's credit he was pretty flex and we spent a lot of time at the start building something we thought worked, even though it was weakened a lot.
The idea was bigger than the stats :)
So yah, TL;DR, it was a great time, I really appreciate everything and the opportunity to explore a really fun idea, but that's where it is :)
Agreed. A cool concept, but hard for GMs to handle ; )
Well, thanks for joining. You will be missed although I think that we are in enough other campaigns that we will still see way too much of each other.
Kzrira wonders what happened to the little dragon. She figures that he was afraid of all the people in the big town and decided to follow the Dawnflower's call elsewhere.
And in turn, thanks for inviting me over, and thanks for the fun :)
Somewhere, out in the sands, perhaps he finally found the answers to unlock his stunted growth and transform into a much larger beast than the one recorded in the record books, who'd believe the Large drake was once only a Tiny lizard
I will miss Auri too. He was a very fun character to RP off of. We will miss you Shifty!
I'm worried about party size now though, and wish we could get Shifty to come up with a new character. If we can't though, then we need to recruit someone else reliable.
If everyone wants to recruit a new player, I have no problem with that. Personally, I really like the four quirky players we have and have had since the beginning. I know players who could probably join the campaign, but the real question is whether we need someone new, barring Shifty changing his mind, and if so who/what class we want. We have the arcane, martial and skill areas very well covered it seems. Thus, we would be looking for another divine character, probably someone capable of casting Restore(lesser) and the usual cure spells. (We could also accomplish this at some cost, but creating/purchasing a Wand of Restore(lesser).)
It is the team's call. I think that we can probably make it as we are, but would not argue against a replacement player as long as they are in for the very long haul and are a know daily poster.
I feel like Shifty was that rare mix of personality and concept that fit right in, I am nervous about a recruitment only for lack of such a seamless transition... I second that if Shifty wanted to bring another character in I would be happy with that...
Otherwise I think we 4 are good, we will continue to have challenges of a certain stripe but that is some of the "fun". I don't feel a need to get another player for size sake per se...so those are my thoughts there.
As for treasure: Am I to assume that Auri will still take his share?
As to Kzrira taking the axe and armor I will calculate that.
I assume its up to Voodoo to tell us what Auri does/does not take with him?
I think we'll be OK with 4. I can adjust as needed.
I really just want to keep close to WBL ~11,000. I don't care so much about distribution equity so Amir doesn't owe anything and Karethas can have what he needs to get up to WBL. Let's just keep it as simple as possible.
My thoughts are that the Citadel would request the golden breastplate and flaming scimitar back as church property, but offer to replace the items with something more suitable to you in return.
A chance to enhance Amir's heirloom and get Kzrira more appropriate (mithral bp?) armor.
What do you envision for your heirloom weapon anyway Amir?
Ok - so, DM Voodoo, how are they willing to trade/make/exchange?
We still have 2 pounds of unused Mithral - valued at 2k, I believe.
The golden breastplate +2(light fort) - 9300 I believe
The flaming scimitar +1 - 8300
The breastplate(agile) +1 - 1400
I would love a Mithral Breastplate (agile is sort of worthless with my Armor Training).
--> If possible a +2 Breastplate or +1 (deathless or defiant(fire or evil))
A Mithril Breastplate +2 should be 4200+4000 or 8200. If we gave them the 2k worth of Mithril we found to use in crafting the armor, would we get anything more in return? Not trying to haggle here, just trying to figure out how this will work. I assume that Amir will have a similar question regarding trading the flaming scimitar and enchanting his heirloom sword.
Kzrira- have you mistaken this for the temple of Abadar? ; )
I think the mithral chunks could perhaps be employed to make a weapon for Faelar. a mithral mw rapier that could be magicked up to agile later?
If you're cool with +1 mithral bp (deathless), that works for me.
A mithral Rapier would be cool, especially if I could make it Agile later as that means I could actually help in combat then. Even though I like Dervish Dance, I don't want to seem to be the same as any of the other players.
Besides I have always seen Faelar as a Fencer, so the Agile Rapier makes more sense. Just won't have a huge amount of damage output, at this point.
But if Kzrira really wants the Mithral Breastplate, then I will try and fork out for buying a Mithral Rapier.
Oh and goodbye Auri, it was fun having you with us. A Shame that you couldn't find a way to continue with Auri, I was hoping to help him evolve into the real Brass Dragon that he really was. I think I will have Faelar write a book on Auri, "When Dragons wish to be Big."
Yeah... I am so lost on the treasure thing now so I'll just do my best to follow along until a concrete plan is formed... >_<
I think that a Mithral Rapier is great for you Faelar. Mithral also counts as silver if we meet any more were-katapeshi lions.
As you said, this saves you a Feat. Dervish dance is nice, but with your limited feats as a non-human bard, getting the rapier Agile and Keen would allow you to do decent damage.
That would be amazing, but would you be willing to let me use the Mithral to make this weapon instead of you getting the Mithral Breastplate?
No - I think that what DM Voodoo is saying is that there is nowhere near enough Mithral for the armor. There is more than enough for the rapier. My guess is that you will just have to pay the cost of a Masterwork rapier - 420 or some thing like that. If you have another 2k to spare, you could then get it enchanted to +1.
I am trading the golden armor for a mithral breastplate.
My guess is that Amir will trade the flaming scimitar in exchange for having his heirloom weapon enchanted in some fashion.
From my understanding of what DM VooDoo has said, we can trade and exchange stuff, but in the end we should not have much more than 11k worth of equipment each.
Currently I have:
Tempest Bow - currently a +1 Composite Longbow, Adaptive (~3500 gp)
Armor (still deciding exactly) - +2 Mithral Breastplate possibly (8200 gp)
Greataxe +1 - if you guys don't mind being a little short for a while - 2400 gp
I would love an Efficient Quiver, but at this point I am above the WBL by quite a bite even without the greataxe. I might just have them make a +1 Mithral Breastplate and get it further enchanted in the future as I get additional wealth.
Let's assume the following:
1. Basically Auri leaves his gold behind but takes his gear. (As the gold is coming from our efforts after his departure and most of his wealth was in already existing gear)
2. We use the mithril to make a sword for Faelar.
3. We do not sell or otherwise expend the gems, the mace or the +2 breastplate (as Voodoo indicated these things would have other use later)
With all that in mind or new distro looks like this:
Kzrira:
Tempest Bow
Agile Breast Plate
+1 Great Axe
Gold 4114gp 18sp
Amir:
Flaming Scimitar
Keen Short Sword
Gold -305gp -83sp
Karethas:
Cloak of Resistance
Spellsight Bracers
Gold 5999gp 18sp
Faelar:
+1 Studded Leather
Ring of Feather Fall
Mithril Rapier
Headband of Cha +2
Gold 3101gp 68sp
This keeps our equal distro, gets Faelar a better weapon (and the funds to enchant if he so chooses) and make it clear what Kzrira has to spend while keeping the axe. (And she can sell the agile plate to get something else but I don't know that we want to touch the other breastplate as it seems to have a future that Voodoo is hinting at.) We continue to be a little ahead of WBL but some of that will get chewed up right away as at least some of us (me, possibly Kzrira) will sell what we have to get something else which will end up dropping our average. This seems the cleanest.
Amir - I think that the "future use" for the +2 Breastplate and Flaming scimitar are returning them to the temple. I could be wrong.
By my understanding, they are religious artifacts that the Temple of Sarenrae wants. Thus, they are willing to trade them for fairly good equipment - we get like 70-80% return versus 50% if we just sold them.
I believe that the +2 Breastplate (Light Fort) can be exchanged for a +2 Mithral Breastplate (or +1 with special +1 power) - I might take just a +1 Mithral Breastplate to keep the WBL more balanced, then I think I can almost afford an Efficient Quiver.
I assume that you can exchange the +1 Flaming scimitar for an upgrade on your heirloom weapon. We might have to chip in a little (I can toss in the +1 Agile Breastplate) to make up the difference, but hopefully you can get a +2 weapon (or a +1 with power (Frost?)).
Also, I have mentioned this before, I think that Faelar should take my old mithral shirt and get it enchanted. It is considered light armor, so there will be no penalties for using it. It would reduce his weight and add +1 to his AC.
Personally I could care less about the +1 Greataxe, but we all know that out devious DM Voodoo is going to make situations where my bow will be less than effective. The axe gives me a good backup weapon even if it never is enchanted past +1.
I can take the Mithral Shirt, it won't increase my Armour class as I already have a +1 Studded Leather Armour. However it would reduce the weight I am carrying.
Also, does anyone have any advice on me getting Karethas to upgrade my Headband from +2 Cha, to +2 Cha and Int? Should I do this, or not?
Well let's see what comes of that part. I have the spreadsheets for the wealth so I can track it to make sure everyone is getting their slice.
A part of me wants to look at getting my weapon good aligned like the mace, that seems to have been useful, but I don't know a price for aligning a weapon, its not on the standard chart for additions (Obviously I could extrapolate from the the cost of the spell, permanancy and so on but that is subject to Voodoo's consideration.)
The mithril shirt to Faelar is a good idea, and if we have the scratch to upgrade it I think that would be wise.
+2 Int? I guess so but we are a skill heavy party already, not sure that the juice is worth the squeeze...maybe you should get +2 Wis...ya know why :p In all seriousness though I'm not sure what the big draw would be, you have so many skill points and the like already I'm not sure it's worth it. I would almost rather invest the money to get you up to +4 CHA or find some other wonderous item that might be useful to you.
I agree with Amir. Upgrading the Headband to +2/+2 is 3k. I think that 1k on getting your armor to +1 and 2k on making your Mithral Rapier +1 might be better use.
Another option - the old standby - would be a Handy Haversack. Since you like to carry all your books and writing paraphernalia, this would be right in line with you. And since your Strength is low, this is also beneficial.
Another combat related item might be a Belt of Dex +2 - boring, but probably more useful than the +2 to Int. It would help with AC, attacks (weapon finesse & ranged), Reflex saves and a ton of skills.
In addition, you already have a 16 Int which fits in which your character, but getting the additional +2 really only gaves you a single skill at max ranks. You do not gain on any saves, it does not help with combat or spellcasting or any real bard abilities. And with all your feats and traits and class abilities, most of your Knowledge skils are already sky high. In a level or two you will be able to Take 10 and occasionally 20 on Knowledge checks which will be like 35 or 40 for you. If we are meeting monsters with a CR that high, we have a lot of problems other than your Int being 2 points too low.
I was considering putting the skill on Use Magic Device, so we could use more divine wands and maybe some arcane wands. But I thought I would grab everyones opinion.
I think the Weapon and Armour will be a good idea, just need to do a little more searching.
UMD has its uses to be sure though with a wizard in the party already, decidedly less. We have lost the clerical element with the exit of our Oracle...but what items would we need you to use? You can using healing wands and outside of that it is possible to get universal activation items that would do some of what we need (though it would cost more out of pocket)...I'm not opposed, per se, to you getting the INT bump, and I can see the use I just don't know, in a world with many options, its the best option.
Not to mention that to a certain extent, after the initial skill point, raising your CHA is pound for pound a better way to raise your UMD and get you other bonuses.
Faelar, I don't think putting INT on your circlet is the best move at this time either. If you can put even one rank in UMD, then you will have a +8, which will give you a good chance to use any wand out of combat. I agree that +2 Dex would be a better option, especially if you got Agile on a rapier. (Plus 2000gp vs 3000gp for Dex vs Int)
Speaking of which, shouldn't we pick up a wand of Lesser Restoration since we will not have someone who will be able to cast it? 4500gp, 1,125gp per person.
PS I like VooDoo's idea of giving Karethas 11,000 WBL...and everyone else as well :-).
Thank-you for all of your advice on the Headband, I think I shall get that later on, if I need it then.
Okay, Well I will definitely upgrade the Armour to a +1, as that will help me be safe.
But now I have 2 options, Get Karethas to create me a Belt of +2 Dex, or Upgrade the Mithral Rapier to +1. What is everyone's opinion on these?
So how much money do we have now? Is everything being adjusted again to make it up to 11,000 each? Also ... What is happening with the Studded Leather Armour I am currently wearing? Does Amir want that or are we selling it?
